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I'm trying to get ideas...here's what we are thinking.
We're possibly doing glass coasters with the chinese symbol of love on it. The symbol is key to my FI and I as he has it tattooed on him, I'm getting it and we had it writeen out with our names and framed for our first Valentines day.
We'd wrap a ribbon on them, tie a bow and hang a "Thank you" tag from it - all in all the coaster is about $1.10 each and then I'll make the hang cards and pick up ribbon at a craft store.
I figure a coaster thats not got our names on it is something everyone could use and if they get left behind, I won't mind having extras atround the house.....
How about everyone else...
I think coasters are an excellent idea...
My favors I am still debating. Maybe mini champagne bottles, truffles... or I might even opt for a donation card to the breast cancer association...
still undecided....
We're doing a candy buffet in lieu of favours. I figure if there's leftover candy that's just fine by me! Consumable favours are the way to go - if you can eat it or drink it, it's great!
We're contemplating four options:
1. 3 teabags tied in a little organza bag
2. Chocolate truffles
3. Personalized deck of cards with one of our engagement photos on the back of the cards
4. No favours!
We're doing personalized Frisbees. Well, maybe mini Frisbees, but legit ones from Discraft. We're Ultimate Frisbee players, so those cheap plastic ones just won't work!
You could also make a donation in lieu of favours. A friend of mine lost her best friend to cancer so she is making a donation to the Canadian Cancer Society. They will supply her with the little cards that go on the table describing where her donation goes.
we did photo coasters and swapped out the "thank you for being part of our special day" insert that came with them to custom "Thank You" with our names and wedding date.
They turned out to be a hit, and friends still come up to me after the wedding asking if we have extras.
It's so nice also to go to friends' houses and see the coasters being used, rather than giving them elaborately wrapped candies that they will eat and throw away in a second.
I did mini bottles of dried rosemary.... my main color was sage, so it went with my color palette, plus upon researching rosemary, i learned some interesting things about its traditional role in weddings! So, on the bottle (which i got here: http://save-on-crafts.com/minglasbotbr3.html), I had a semi-clear vellum label wrapped around it that explained:
I am doing personalize dove chocolates from Hershey. You can customize them right on their website and pick the color of the wrapping you want to us. Then I am going to just wrap them in Tuille with a bow. I figured a favor that you can eat (and if yummy! Love Doves) is better than something that will collect dust on your shelf or be left behind at the reception because people don't care for it.
we're giving everyone a cd with our song (let it snow) on it and a candle and votive holder that I etched snowflakes on and a little christmas ornament that doubles as a ringer that everyone will ring as we leave (it's three little jingle bells with a snowflake pendant and a little thanks tag on sheer ribbon)
We are putting 5 candy sticks (green and brown) in a clear bag and using material at the top to decorate it up a bit. Simple but cute and tasty!
We gave out mini reed diffusers... they were a huuuuuuuuuuuugggggggggggeeeeeeeeeee hit!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
doing bamboo windchimes that i got in the philippines. they came out to be $.28 each with the converstion rate and the bargaining that we did. :) also doing a candy buffet. and since there's such a long time span between the church and reception, i'm also handing out chinese take out boxes with creampuffs in them after the church ceremony.
We wanted something that followed our preference for sustainable business, would be a big hit from little kids to the grandparents and was easy to travel with since most of our guests were from out of town. We briefly considered DIY coasters but were worried that they would break or wouldn't be as well-received as we had intended.
So enter locally-made, organic truffles! The DH and I are chocolate snobs (prefer European over *most* American chocolate which is made from hydrogenated oils) so we were concerned about ordering from somewhere we couldn't try the product in advance. We went with a local chocolatier and they were a huge hit! My 3-year-old niece sniffed them out immediately. 
At the end of the night the guests asked for the name of the chocolatier - they wanted to order some of their own! In our eyes, that was a huge hit as not only were the truffles super-yummmmy but our purchase went to to a local business owner.
chocolate covered fortune cookies in small take out boxes wrapped in ribbon
Originally we were going to make cute glass jars of pear preserves to hand out (family recipe). After making over 30 of them...and running out of pears...I realized we might not be able to buy enough pears to make 200!! And I might run out of patience. So now we are going to friend's honeybee farm and collecting honey. Using the same jars, cute fabric, and lovely notes - martha stewart-ish :)
I'm getting chocolate covered fortune cookies, you can personalize the fortunes, and chopsticks engraved with our names and the "happy" symbol. I'll make silver paper holders and wrap the chopsticks with a ribbon.
I haven't seen either product in person, but browsing other shops these looked great in comparison.
http://www.chocolati.com/home.php?cat=1
we are foregoing the "traditional" favor by making a dontation to the American Cancer Society (our charity) in honor of our guests and in memory of my father (it is a way I hope to include him in our special day).
we are also going to have a photobooth with a personalized banner. we are going to have the digital images of the pictures projected on the wide screen during the dance portion of the reception afterparty
i am also going to make the name cards into bookmarks so that guests can actually keep them and use them afterwards. i am just debating if they should be laminated or not, at this point. which is easy enough to do with a xyron machine. :)
btw. the american cancer society provides you with really nice, free certificates or menu cards for all your guests explaining your donation, regardless of the amount of your gift to them. isnt that cool?
We're going with photo frames that double as place card holders. I know that's been done... but so has everything else. I'm a photography student, so it ties in my interests a bit. I think it will be nice for guests to walk away with something they can use again. Plus, I found frames that aren't terribly feminine yet tie into my loose theme of elegant leaves! I found them at weddingchannel.com.
http://www.weddingchannelstore.com/weddingchannel/ProductPage.aspx?scId=PlaceCardHolders1(KnotShop)&pId=P466(KnotShop)&cId=Favors(KnotShop)&cTypF
we did personalized mugs - www.discountmugs.com - and then, added in personalized tea bags with our wedding date and names. in addition to that, for our centerpieces, we had a cupcake tower so many people ended up drinking the tea for dessert and fitting about 2-3 cupcakes inside of their mugs
I actually won that License to Wed prize when they had that contest in Brides Magazine this summer. One of the prizes was Godiva 4pc. Truffle wedding favors so we're having those. So happy with them! I love truffles!
I'm buying large Snickerdoodles and placing them in cute cellophane bags that we can decorate. It came out to be super cheap for 250 people and they are delicious.
We're also donating to charity instead of favors - Partial to a hospice in Israel & partial to an animal refuge here at home - Escort cards will be white pumpkins, so whoever gets one, they are more than welcome to it :)
no reception favors per se - sandalwood fans at the beach ceremony, welcome letter with a 9-piece box of truffles @ our dw
nothing.
welcome bags for out of town guests in the hotels and that's it.
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My fiance and I love almond cookies so we are putting them 4 cookies in a fuschia bag, putting them in a 3x3 white gift box, and wrapping them with ribbon in our wedding colors. Attached to the favor will be an escort card telling the guest where they sit (it's an outdoor wedding, and we needed something to hold them down.)
Budget got tight, so we lost the favors. I am really glad actually. No one even blinked an eye (or from what I have heard, even asked about them). I just can't believe how close I was to spending that much for favors, I realized that there hasn't been a single favor that I have gotten at a wedding that I haven't tossed in the trash.
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We're also doing donations as favors. I found some great wording through a LOT of internet searches, so if anyone wants to use it as well, this is what we did:
We are so lucky to be celebrating the beginning of our new life together, surrounded by family and friends, Blessed with health, happiness, and love. In an effort to help those less fortunate than us, and in lieu of favors, we have made donations to the following charities in your honor: The Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Doctors Without Borders, and the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
Thank you for sharing this special day with us"
We chose those charities because we care about their missions greatly, and thought it would be nice to donate to more than one location that had meaning for us. I did charity rating searches online to find out how well they spend their money, and went only with 4 and 5 star rated charities.
we're doing guitar picks. FI is a professional musician, and our theme is "Our Rockstar Wedding". Sure not everyone will find a use for them, but they are affordable and unique. Plus, if we have leftovers. the FI will never need to buy any more :)
Instead of having wedding cake we're doing a mini dessert bar and make your own sundae station. For favors I found the old fashioned glass sundae dishes on amazon for about $2.00 each. I'll be giving those out wrapped up in cellophane with little packages of sprinkles and the big sundae spoons inside.
We gave out travel candles (basically tea lights in a tin) & our friend made the labels which saved us big $$$. We had a travel themed wedding and I loved having extras around & to take on our honeymoon.
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i have really been on the fence about this.. I think that either the open candy buffet or the donation (or both!) are the way to go .. it seems like it will be the least wasteful for our guests?
I always hear/read "skip the favors, no one cares" but it feels so .. necessary to me? sigh. 
I still say donations are not a gift. They are a wonderful, meaningful use for your money but they are not a gift to your guests.
After polling all my friends of their favorite gifts they all said food is what they remember. I'm doing little pink and white boxes with two pieces of See's Candy. We'll see how it goes over.
I do like your idea for the coasters...... my only issue is that wedding favors can end up being so wasteful (if people throw them out) or if excessive wrapping is used which will only be thrown out as well. I also think that favors are basically a way for the wedding industry to make us shell out even more money!
I do like the idea of the candy buffet - limited packaging and you can eat the remander, or cupcakes, cookies, chocolates with limited packaging. Donations are a great option. I agree that they are not really a "gift" especially if it's to a charity they do not like, however most favors are not really gifts as such and many get tossed out.
A donation combined with a homemade gift - food or plants/flowers/seeds to grow something would be ideal in my opinion.
We are giving out evergreen seedling trees (it's a winter wedding) and figure that if people throw them out they will atleast grow a tree! Or if they leave them behind we can plant them all in our huge backyard :) We ended up getting the seedlings for free and only had to pay 15 cents for each little pot to put them in. I'm going to make thank you tags with leftover invitation paper for a very minimum cost and use of packaging.
Keeping it simple and homemade (if possible) I think is the best way to go.
Good luck!
My fiance and I are deciding to give to charity as well. We are extremely passionate about animals so we are giving to the ASPCA. I couldn't help but want to create yet another DIY project and give something to the guests so we are giving guests a paw print cookie. To save some money we'll be making them ourselves. With a small guest list the project should be manageable.
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